Contemporary art hammered at auctions

By Louise Bellamy

26 April 2014 — 3:00am

With auction houses reminiscent of opening night at the opera and commercial galleries likened to a date at a funeral, artists now need the reflected glory of the prices their works attract at auction. With the 2014 sales season under way, there is buoyed interest in a new generation of artists. But their works are going under the hammer for a song.

Mid-career contemporary artists craning necks in the salesroom include Sydney's Ben Quilty, 41, whose 2004 Van Gogh After John Russell is expected to sell at Deutscher and Hackett's April 30 sale for between $12,000 and $16,000. Others include three works by Sydney-based New Zealand artist Euan Macleod estimated at $12,000, $5000 and $2500 respectively, a Dale Frank ($28,000-plus) and a 2005 Patricia Piccinini fibreglass, Radial ($25,000).

Juan Davila's Portrait of Enriqueta Gallardo (Buckley's Return).

Quilty, who won the Archibald Prize in 2011 and the Doug Moran Portrait Prize in 2009 is flavour of the month.

It's common knowledge that gallery directors think auction houses get too much traction, but Stuart Purves, whose Australian Galleries soon celebrates its 60th anniversary, admits auction houses are still the best form of advertising for artists, in both markets. ''They put them in the spotlight in a way no gallery can.''

The new interest in contemporary art, which is plentiful and relatively cheap, is an area Leonard Joel, Melbourne's oldest auction house, is chiselling its way into.

Last year it cherry-picked contemporary art specialist Sophie Ullin to head its art department and its March 25 quarterly Australian fine art auction saw about 15 per cent of contemporary works for sale, including Adelaide-based Deidre But-Husaim's large 2007 oil They're Nobody's Babies Now for $4880, equalling her previous auction record.

Ullin says the after-effects of the global financial crisis has seen auction houses' client base change, with discretionary spending diving sharply to less than $10,000, and most activity below $5000. ''There's also been a generational shift with different tastes in architecture - more glass and one feature wall - and technology behaviours - collectors can access art work worldwide - which has put the spotlight on contemporary art,'' Ullin says.

Ullin has just secured the company's second only single-owner contemporary art sale on May 19, with 150 works estimated at $1 million, including Sydney artist and dual Archibald winner Del Kathryn Barton's 2006 oil and pen Girl as a Sorcery Figure (Version 5), estimated to fetch between $26,000 and $36,000.

Barton set an auction record in August 2011 for Keeper of the Polka-Dotts (2004) which sold at Deutscher for $192,000. Yet even Barton's market reflects the pattern of most artists, Ullin explains, ''with 50 per cent of her works unsold since 2011 and the majority selling below estimates''.

Mossgreen director Paul Sumner, who is selling Melbourne gallery director John Buckley's largely contemporary collection on May 13 (see below), says until auction houses offer stand-alone contemporary art sales, ''contemporary art will be lost in the wash'' at generic Australian art sales, which span colonial through to cutting-edge art.

Sumner is holding a forum on May 11 to encourage auction houses to run stand-alone sales. ''Otherwise 'star performers' will always attract headlines over the star performers of the future''.

Though contemporary works only represented 10 per cent of Menzies' sale, a record was set for Juan Davila's 1999 Portrait of Enriqueta Gallardo (Buckley's Return) which almost trebled its $31,200 record, selling for $85,909. Head of art Timothy Abdallah says Menzies is ''definitely seeking more artists in this market''.

Contemporary works will comprise 10 to 15 per cent of Sotheby's Australia's first 2014 sale on May 13, with works by artists including Aida Tomescu, Linde Ivimey, and David Larwill. But chairman Geoffrey Smith cautions: ''We are not pushing this part of the market, as most of our works are by historical artists like Nolan and Tom Roberts''.

Bonhams Australia chairman Mark Fraser this week signed a contract for a significant single-owner sale of contemporary indigenous works to coincide with its first 2014 sale on May 11.